You and your race

Hi guys!

This thread is pretty much to ask your opinions in regards your race. I posted it here because I'm more concerned to know how other latinos feel about their race but any other non-latino/hispanic can come and comment here too. So the questions are: How do you feel being the race you are and what opinions do you have of the rest of the population that correspond to your race? Do you identify with others of the same race as you or you just seem not to relate with them? Are you proud of being the race you were born as?

I can't say I'm the most patriotic Mexican nor have the highest pride over my race, although I do love the diversity of culture in my race. I enjoy being around with people of the same race as me (eventually, I do live in Mexico lol) but when it comes to music and TV shows I mainly listen to Enlgish music and watch English tv shows. I do feel that in my race we sometimes discriminate each other since being of darker skin means you belong to the lower class while the light skin mexicans rarely do get discriminated and are always welcomed in any establishment. In fact, being a white Mexican nearly guarantees you a job spot while being of darker skin doesn't or just puts you in the janitor positions.

The downside in being Mexican or latino overall is that people have a negative view about us. I think this has to do with all the violence and gang wars that seems to thrive in my race. Also the general public in the USA see Mexicans as brutes with no education whatsoever. Being brown usually means you're violent and tbh I don't blame people to think this way considering how most Mexicans love picking up fights towards people not belonging to their race. I would love to see the day when people stop generalizing us as that.

Anyways, I've spoken to some latinos and a lot of them have said that if they had a chance to choose a different race they'll definitely switch. Ugh, I don't think that I would want to be of another race but if being white means being rich and beautiful or Asian means being smart then yeah, others might do the switch to get rid of the discrimination that latinos suffer.

I'd like to here your point of views and please respond to the topic lol.

I'm not entirely sure if I have Latin ancestors at all.
First things first. I'm white, very very white. My grandfather is the son of a soldier who died in WWII and fought on the Nazi side. he came to South America when he was a teen, and first got to Chile. There he saved a few bucks and came to Bolivia. He met my grandmother here, who apparently has all her roots in Portugal (thought they used to go to Brazil a lot). This is all in my mother's side: She's the daughter of an Austrian dad and a Portuguese (or maybe Brazilian?) woman.

I don't know much about my dad since I haven't had much contact with him since he divorced my mom, but he lives in Spain now and I believe all of his roots are there. The only person who looks Bolivian in the whole family is my dad's father. But I believe all his roots are from Spain, if not most of them.

Good thing is, I will be able to leave Bolivia. I want to leave Bolivia and my skin color won't be an issue when I decide where I want to live (probably somewhere in Europe, the USA is at the bottom of my list of possibilities).

That being said, I find it impossible to feel pride in your race or in your country. I don't mind my race (since I really don't know what I am ), and I wouldn't like to be anything else. Like I said, I find pride in these things a silly thing. People in Bolivia seem to be very proud of their Aymara identity and all and this is one of the things that hurts the country's progress and technology development. Nationalism, Patriotism seem to go hand in hand with xenophobia and actual racism very frequently, so it's a good thing I don't know who I am, in that way I don't have silly labels in my body that scream "Latin" or "German" or anything at all.

Well discrimination is everywhere, even here the Mexican-Americans(Chilangos etc) hate those of us not born in the United States. I find this more hurtful than if whites or blacks had said it. I can say I'm proud to be latino/Mexican because I'm so far away from my hometown and I get that homesick feeling. I wouldn't change my race if I were given the choice, because we have such a rich culture and I love that.

I listen to everything, from Joan Sebastian to Rocio Durcal to Lupe Fiasco and Alicia Keys. My pops would wake us up on the weekends to all that music like Banda el Recodo and Juan/Anna Gabriel so I got used to it. I do prefer HipHop/Rap and Rock over anything else though.

As for the shows I prefer English because they catch my interest more.